Meet Stephen, a Senior Software Engineer at Method

We’d love to learn more about you. Describe your role at Method.

I was hired in September 2023 and after I finished ramping for a month, I took on my first major project. The outcome of this project is the second version of Method’s liability APIs: API v2! I worked on this for 4-5 months and we officially launched early last year. While working on API v2 to better enable access to all of a user’s liabilities with their consent, I was also working on increasing engineering support coverage. I set up on-call schedules, assigned primary and secondary point of contact(s) so that our customers had a go-to person after hours.

Last year, I took on more recruiting initiatives by working closely with Quyen and Colin on the talent team. I worked with them on improving our hiring initiatives to create a positive candidate experience. We hired 5 engineers in 5 months!

My most recent projects have focused on Method’s payment rails to facilitate repayment from one financial institution to another. Objectives include: increasing payment coverage, processing volume, partnering with different payment providers, as well as launching posted payment confirmation. The latter is so there’s visibility on when a payment is submitted to Method all the way to when it is posted in the end-user’s account. Being able to work on a variety of projects whether it’s our API docs or being a hiring team member has been a great experience so far :)

Describe your journey into Software Engineering

I completed high school in Canada and part of being in grade 11 was choosing pre-requisites for grade 12. My dad and I brainstormed a bunch of studies that I was interested in which included astronomy, business, and computer science. Spoiler: I ended up picking computer science. I love being part of hackathons and being able to create (code) something and share it with the masses. There’s a great satisfaction in seeing your creation being used.

What attracted you to Method?

My partner who works in the payments space came across Method and shared the company with me. At the time I was working at a much larger company but was looking for more of a start-up, fast-paced culture. I wanted to feel closer to the company from a business and culture perspective. 

I saw that Method was making waves in the fintech space and one of the things that was most attractive is the product  - aggregating liability info through single sign on (SSO) via a phone number and name. It seemed very efficient where I didn’t have to sign into every account to access my info and it gave me real time data. The mission, product, and people ended up being the perfect combination for what I was looking for.

How does your work impact people's financial lives?

My work has reduced costs for our customer base, introduced more product features, and provided more visibility on the post status of all transactions. The end user benefits from all these features because they have clarity on their account data and transaction processing statuses.

Describe Method’s culture and an experience that encapsulates it

Method has a very open and friendly culture. If you have a question, it feels like people will take the time to answer and help you. Everyone is easy going and it feels like you’re able to come into Method and make friends. We’re also a diverse group of people who have varying hobbies. A few of my favorite activities I’ve done with colleagues include golfing, pickleball, and go-karting!

One of our offsites in DC included ziplining. We love a new challenge and doing something outside of our scope where we can cheer each other on and laugh it off. This experience definitely encapsulates our open culture.

When it comes to the engineering culture at Method, we have two stand-ups each week. On Mondays, Jose (CEO), outlines our goals, priorities, and updates from the previous week, setting a clear direction for what matters most. Then, on Wednesdays, we hold another stand-up to address any blockers, providing an open forum for engineers to share their insights and feedback. When we're not meeting in real-time, we’re on Slack where everyone can share updates and engage in discussions throughout the day.

In terms of shipping, we prioritize thoroughness with our design documentation. All engineers have the visibility to review each other's code which gives us an opportunity to ask questions and gain more context even if it’s not someone’s core project or code. There’s always someone available to answer any of my questions and I love how collaborative and transparent our engineering culture is.

Tell me more about the hub that you work in and what do you like about it?

I’m in NYC - the biggest and best office (my personal opinion!). It’s a diverse team here where we have members from all departments: Sales, Customer Success, Engineering, Recruiting, & Finance. There’s always someone’s dog! We’re close to so many eateries and are often deciding on what to have for lunch or where to go for happy hour.

What's been your favorite memory with the team so far?

I started off working remotely and my first team offsite with the engineering team was when we all went to California. We ended up at Disneyland, went on all the rides, took all the fun photos, and came to learn which type of rides people were afraid of the most (some of us are afraid of the vertical drop rides, haha).

Last question, Method is redefining financial connectivity. Why should people come and build with us?

If you love being a part of a group of passionate individuals, Method can be a great place for you. Your contributions matter and being able to build with company leaders has been really fun. We have Demo Days where you’re able to learn what everyone else is building and how it all comes together for Method.